Among the Nicholls and dimes I will find myself a gem again
PAUL NICHOLLS says the inspiration he feels searching for his next top contender beats the frustration of not having a horse capable of competing for championship races this winter.
The 10-time British champion jumps trainer will welcome more than 300 guests to his annual owners’ day this morning and parade 80 horses from almost 130 in his Somerset stable.
But he is no nearer finding a replacement for Big Buck’s, Denman, Kauto Star and Neptune Collonges. He is unlikely even to have a runner in Kempton’s King George VI Chase on St Stephen’s Day, a race he has won nine times.
Three times the Lexus Chase has been plundered at Leopardstown in December – Denman, What A Friend and Tidal Bay triumphant – but last season he didn’t have a runner.
Yet the ambition that has seen Nicholls close in on becoming only the second trainer in Britain after Martin Pipe to train 3,000 jumps winners is fuelling his desire to unearth fresh equine gems.
Nicholls said: ‘People ask if I’m frustrated that I haven’t got those top horses. Not at all. I’m lucky to have had the ones I had.
‘It doesn’t frustrate me, it inspires me. We love getting the maximum out of the horses we train. The really good horses will turn up again. We’ve got a team of really nice young horses, though not many high-profile ones. We’ll get back to winning those big races.
‘Having won nine King Georges and nine Tingle Creek Chases, you can hardly complain. But we have to round it off and make it 10. When we had Denman and he went novice hurdling, there was no way you’d have known he was a Gold Cup horse. Horses improve.’
Nicholls says he is not being priced out of the market for raw talent but admits it is tougher and more risky recruiting it – owner Rich Ricci and trainer Willie Mullins have become adept at landing quality French-bred horses, the market where the Englishman got Kauto Star and Master Minded.
‘The top horses are probably no dearer than they were 10 years ago but instead of two or three trying to buy them there are probably seven or eight. When we bought Neptune Collonges, Kauto Star and Big Buck’s, they’d had half-a-dozen runs. You knew the form was there,’ Nicholls said.
‘They never get that far now. You have to buy horses after one run. You have to take a big gamble for a lot of money. I’m not priced out of the market. I have some really good clients, but it’s getting value for money.’
His career-best 171 British wins last year was enough to take a losing tussle with Nicky Henderson in the title race to the last day of the season, even though only two of his successes were at grade one level.
At Cheltenham, Pacha Du Polder in the Foxhunters was his sole success, while Mullins and Gordon Elliott went home with six wins apiece. Still, he already has more wins on the board (25) this season than at the same point 12 months ago and his squad of promising novice chasers and the likes of Clan Des Obeaux and Politologue, will keep the fires burning for Nicholls this winter.